


pierce through my heart

by minjilix



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Crack, Existential Crisis, Fluff, I tried my best, Light Angst, M/M, Needles, Not love at first sight but HueningKai thinks Taehyun is extremely pretty, Unrequited Love, excessive use of the word pretty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:26:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23575363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minjilix/pseuds/minjilix
Summary: “I should get a piercing.” It’s the outcome his fuzzy, sad brain comes up with. It makes sense, because Hueningkai is half-asleep, lonely and bored, and the last time this happened it ended with him having awful pink hair for a week before he dyed it back to black, and maybe it’s a pattern and the hair was the first step, and now a piercing is the next, until he looks like the mess he feels.And it would also look cool as hell.orHueningkai has an existential crisis and a pretty boy in the bathroom at one am helps him get through it.
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun, Choi Yeonjun & Kang Taehyun, Huening Kai & Kang Taehyun, Huening Kai/Kang Taehyun
Comments: 10
Kudos: 100





	pierce through my heart

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first tyunning, not my first txt work or work in hyuka's pov but yeah!! i almost passed out piercing my ears two nights ago so i thought it'd be fun to write hyuka doing the same but then it turned more into an entire world with its own backstory rather than mindless fluff and i was planning on making it be just like 2k/3k but it ended up being 6k so uh enjoy!!! please forgive any grammatical mistakes, my native language isn't english therefore sometimes i have a hard time knowing when i wrote something wrong.  
> anyways!! thank u for reading
> 
> ps: in this fic tyunning are 19/20, while soogyu are 21 and yeonjun is 22

Hueningkai is bored, and lonely, but mostly bored. He has a pile of homework to finish, term papers and projects due in less time than he anticipated, and a side project he's working on with Beomgyu waiting for him to open it and _get on with it_ _already_. 

Soobin is at the library, trying to study without the loud noise his roommate and his friends make when they are together, and Beomgyu is out doing whatever it is that he does on Friday nights, —which is probably sneaking into a party he wasn't invited to and trying to get the number of the hottest guy or girl he can find— and ignoring all of Hueningkai's texts imploring him to save him from his boredom. His roommate is also out on a date he's been waiting for months now.( _ "Finally! He asked me out, Kai!"  _

_ "Hell yeah! go get your man, Jeonginnie hyung" _ ) So he's all alone, bored, and with responsibilities weighing on his shoulders begging him to actually do them. 

But instead of complying and making sure he doesn’t fail all his classes and receives a slap on the back of the head from Beomgyu and a disapproving look from Soobin, he just sighs and flops backwards on the bed, staring at the ceiling as if it'll start entertaining him now at any moment. And he really wishes that it would, because a bored Hueningkai is not an ideal Hueningkai, especially if he’s alone— and no, it’s not like he needs anyone to babysit him, he’s old enough to make his own decisions. But, but last time he was alone and bored and made his own decisions he ended up with bright pink hair, and no matter how much Jeongin reassured him when he came back to their dorm he definitely can’t pull it off as well as Soobin did.

And if he’s honest, there’s a lot of things that Hueningkai can’t pull off as well as Soobin does; like those pair of skinny jeans that he bought for himself on a whim after Beomgyu teased him about his lack of fashion taste, that in the end he ended up relenting to Soobin because he was too embarrassed to even go outside with them, —and they are also so damn  _ uncomfortable _ , why would anyone voluntarily wear those? Hueningkai guesses it’s a pretty boys thing— and of course his hyung had looked good in them, because no matter how modest Soobin is, he looks  _ good _ , and is good in general, in every aspect. 

Soobin is good looking, that’s a given, that’s something that sometimes keeps him up at night staring at the ceiling and wondering if he’s ever gonna stop noticing the way Soobin’s eyes crinkle when he laughs, or how they sparkle when he’s excited about something, his years catching up to him and making him look so young Huening Kai momentarily forgets Soobin is actually older than him. Soobin is also good with people, in his own way. He’s nice, and caring, and he shows it in the smallest gestures, like listening to people as best as he can, even if they aren’t looking for advice or a conversation he just sits there, a soft smile on his lips and an understanding gleam in his eyes—and Hueningkai kind of hates it because all it does is make him wanna burrow himself in Soobin’s chest and stay there until all his problems go away and all he can focus on is the sweet melody clumsily tumbling out of Soobin’s lips as he sings him to sleep after a stressful day—. He is everything Hueningkai wants to be, and everything Hueningkai  _ wants _ , in all aspects. 

But Soobin doesn’t want him like that, can’t,  _ won’t _ . Because Hueningkai is nothing more than a little brother to him, his best friend, the kid he likes to take care of when he feels homesick and Hueningkai is the closest thing that resembles a little bit of home. And if he were selfish enough he’d get mad, he’d cry and ask  _ why, why can’t it be different _ , but he’s not selfish enough to want that, to do that, he knows he can’t because in their eyes,—in Beomgyu’s, and Soobin’s, and maybe even his—that’s a worse betrayal than hate.

He doesn’t linger on why it is, on where on when it came to be, why every time the jokes go that way they fall silent and it gets stuffy, and Soobin fidgets with the hem of his sweater, looking down at his shoes like it’s more interesting than anything else he’d ever seen. Well, actually, that’s a lie, he does linger, he wonders about it constantly after it happens, after Beomgyu’s laugh turns a little forced and he clears his throat to try and salvage it, and they are gracious enough to humour him and stir up a new topic.

What he doesn’t do is ask, he never asks about it. It’s not because he thinks they wouldn’t tell him, Hueningkai’s sure that they would answer him anything he asked, however intrusive it’d be, but he let’s them think they are kidding themselves and everyone else just fine. Besides, it's not like Hueningkai is completely clueless as to what could be going on, sure, he wasn’t there with them the first two years, but he’s not blind or stupid. His friends are good at bottling things up, especially Soobin, being the oldest and also the only introvert in their friend group, no matter how much he trusts them it doesn’t come as easy to him to share his feelings as it does to Hueningkai.

And Beomgyu, he is an entire different case, even if he bared his soul in the open, Hueningkai thinks he would never actually bare his true feelings, either for fear of getting hurt or hurting others—apparently, this time, he  _ did _ get hurt, and others got hurt too, if the way Soobin didn’t look him in the eye for about two weeks was anything to go by. 

Hueningkai is not dumb, or blind, and he might not have all the facts—or any facts at all, for that matter— but he's sure the reason for his friends' weird behaviour is the pretty, blue haired dance-hyung that sometimes waves (very enthusiastically if Hueningkai might add) at Soobin when they run into him on campus. It's the way he downright  _ beams _ when Soobin even so looks at him, cheeks flushing a pretty pink and plump lips parted in a wide, charming smile as his eyes crinkle with the force of his happiness. And Soobin laughs, he laughs breathlessly and absolutely  _ charmed _ , seemingly forgetting that Hueningkai and Beomgyu are right there.

(And that they are both experiencing some sort of heartbreak. Probably.) 

And Hueningkai doesn't wanna dislike the guy, because he doesn't even know him. But Beomgyu does, and Beomgyu looks sad when he looks at him, the kind of sad that if Hueningkai was good with poetic words he'd describe as something forbidden and precious, untouchable and out of his reach. But he's not good with poetry, and he hates sugarcoating stuff, so he just calls it what it is,  _ bullshit _ , and unfairness. And it is bullshit because the guy is not untouchable and he’s not out of Beomgyu’s reach—he’s right there, and Beomgyu should be the one out of the guy’s reach, out of his league and whatever other stuff, because Beomgyu is amazing and he deserves more than a pretty face who doesn’t even look his way.

He knows it's dumb, to sulk about this when he isn't even involved, but sometimes when he sits to have lunch with his friends on the hills around campus, and he catches Blue Haired Dance-hyung across from them, with his own friends, sneaking wistful glances at Soobin like he might not be allowed to do so if they catch him. Hueningaki glowers, he huffs and stuffs his face with food so he doesn't make an unnecessary comment like  _ "Beomgyu likes dancing too why couldn't you fall for him?"  _ or maybe something dumber like  _ "What does he have that I don't, Soobin?" _ .

He doesn’t need Soobin to answer that one, because Hueningkai can answer it by himself, and he does, every time he catches glimpses of the dance studio at night, one single light turned on, barely illuminating the big room, music softly flowing through the slightly open door and shoes squeaking on the wooden tiles, he sees pretty, charming, blue haired dance-hyung moving like he belongs with the music and nothing else, like he was made to dance and to impress, he becomes one with the beat and the melody in the same way Soobin becomes the soft melodies that he sings Hueningkai sometimes when it’s late at night—and he doesn’t,  _ won’t _ , admit, but he sees it, sees why they would be good together—, his hair and earrings shining with the overhead light of the room, making him look even more ethereal than he does when he’s out in the sun, in all his expensive-clothes-and-flirty-looks glory.

The dude might not be that bad, he might not be bad at all, actually, but he makes Beomgyu sad, and then Soobin gets sad because he thinks it’s  _ his _ fault,—maybe it is, but Hueningkai doesn’t know and that’s neither here nor there. and he really doesn’t wanna blame Soobin for something he’s sure neither of them had any say in.— and Hueningkai in turn, gets sad too because his friends won’t talk to him, and if he asks if everything’s okay they get awkward, and—in short, pretty blue haired dance-hyung can go be pretty and dance at some other uni, ruining someone else’s life instead of Hueningkai’s. 

But Hueningkai knows that what’s done is done, and no matter how far away from them the dude goes, he’s always gonna be wondering maybe if Hueningkai was a little like him, just a tad like him, Soobin would look his way with the same gleam in his eyes when he looks at dance-hyung.

He groans, pushing his face into a pillow and punching it until his arm tires out, huffing an exasperated sigh. His head is starting to hurt from all the thinking and self-doubt, and he feels just as dumb as Beomgyu says he is when they are play-fighting. It’s not like him to dwell on this kind of stuff, he never really gave second thought so his looks or how he acted, his friends always welcomed him with open arms whatever it is that he decided, but ever since he came to college he finds that he’s doubting himself more and more. He looks at Beomgyu with his dyed blond hair, his expensive clothes and piercings, smiling as he waves at everything and everyone, and he sees Soobin quietly chatting away with some girls from his literature class, more comfortable in his own skin than he’s ever been, and he thinks  _ I’m lacking something _ . He’s not sure what, not sure where that thought even comes from, but it feels like it, when he sees all the other kids parading around him like they have their lives figured out —even if they don’t, most of them are just as lost as him, with bags under their eyes and assignments pilling up until the last moment—while Hueningkai mops in the dark in his dorm, wondering if he should join the dance team out of spite for someone that probably doesn’t even know he exists, or if he should start looking to change majors because the one he’s in right now is kicking his ass and he feels like drinking toxic rain water rather than waking up at seven am for the lectures.

Hueningkai sits there, waiting in the dark, for what? He doesn’t know—there’s a lot of things he doesn’t know, he realises with a bitter taste in his mouth—but he waits, squints his eyes at the posters on the wall that Jeongin put up when he first moved in with him, and waits for them to give him some type of clarity on what he should do.

Obviously, they don’t give him any clarity at all whatsoever, only stare dead eyed at him, the eyes of the leader of the boyband Jeongin loves to death stares right back at him with a look that seems to be challenging Hueningkai into doing whatever his brain is gonna come up with next. 

He stares at the guy-in-the-poster’s blonde dyed hair and thinks of Beomgyu, and then he thinks of Pretty-Dance-Hyung and his friends, all of them expensive looking and walking down the halls of the school like they are meant for success, meant to be admired and desired. 

“I should get a piercing.” It’s the outcome his fuzzy, sad brain comes up with. It makes sense, because Hueningkai is half-asleep, lonely and bored, and the last time this happened it ended with him having awful pink hair for a week before he dyed it back to black, and maybe it’s a pattern and the hair was the first step, and now a piercing is the next, until he looks like the mess he feels. 

And it would also look cool as hell. 

Swatting his hand in the general direction of his nightstand, he triumphantly gets a hold of his phone without throwing it on the ground and shattering the screen—again—, so he brings it close to his face, squinting when he turns it on and the light of the screen makes his eyes sting. 

_ It can’t be that hard _ , he reasons, he’s not completely clueless, he’s seen his older sister do her own piercings back when he was a little kid and she was a prepubescent tween who thought piercing her ears behind their parents’ backs was the most rebellious act in the world.—Hueningkai ignores the fact that he’s doing exactly the same, and what it implies about him— It didn’t seem to hurt her, or if it did she was awfully good at acting like it didn’t. Even Soobin got them pierced once, a while back, even if they closed after and he refused to open them again because  _ It hurts, Beomgyu, don’t be a dick, my ear’s gonna fall off! _ . 

He’s not dumb, and he’d rather keep his ears in one piece, thank you very much, so he opens google and types  _ how to pierce my own ears _ . The results he gets are actually pretty helpful and straight forward, there’s no pussyfooting around if it’s safe or not, which he’s glad for because he doesn’t think he’d actually go through it if the opening in one of the articles was that his ears are gonna rot off if he does it at home. Breathing a sigh of relief at the fact that there’s almost no risks at all, he skims the instructions, getting the general gist of cleaning everything and how long the needle should go in. 

He lays there for a second, phone in hand and gaze contemplating, before he sighs and stands up. He remembers Jeongin had a sewing kit laying around, gifted to him by one of his hyungs after he ripped one of his shirts  _ again _ by playing with who-knows-what (even though Hueningkai is pretty sure it’s Jeongin’s hyung’s cats fault that his shirts get ripped because there’s orange fur all over them when Jeongin puts them in the laundry basket, but he’s not gonna comment on that). Looking around in the dim light provided by his almost dead lamp that he stole from his sister before heading off to college, he spots the black round box sitting on top of Jeongin's dresser, a strip of pink lace spilling out of the side, and Hueningkai raises his eyebrows in a silent question, snickering when he imagines Jeongin blushing if he ever confronts him about it.

The article didn't say how big the needle should be, but he guesses a normal sized one works. He rummages through the box, pushing aside all the little knick knacks Jeongin seems to be collecting—a bunch of colored threads, buttons, beads, lace,  _ lots  _ of lace—until he finds the small plushie his roommate uses to stab the needles in. He glares at it, horrified for a second that Jeongin would ever even think of harming a sweet plushie like that, before he takes one of the needles out and puts the lid of the box back on, sliding it further on the dresser like it was before. 

He’s about to step away from Jeongin’s dresser when he spots another box, it’s a wooden box this time, smaller and with details around it, the lid is propped open as it always is, and inside there’s Jeongin’s accessories, his necklaces and bracelets, and Hueningkai spots earrings too, neatly put in a row and arranged with their pairs. He bites his lip, considering, it’s not like Jeongin would mind, right? He seems to have a lot of earrings for a guy who has just two ears.

He ends up grabbing a pair of simple black studs, the smallest in size, because even if he’s acting nonchalant and brave he doesn’t think he could stomach anything bigger than the sewing needle in his hand. Cursing internally as he remembers that he doesn’t have any rubbing alcohol or cotton in hand, he prays that the bathroom’s first aid kit isn’t locked or something (which would be very dumb in case someone needed it for an emergency, so Hueningkai assumes that it is  _ not _ locked and/or sealed).

The walk towards the bathroom in his hall isn’t long, but the halls are very dark at night, and even though he won’t admit it in front of Beomgyu or Jeongin because he knows they’ll tease him about it until he gets over it out of spite, he’s a little scared of them, of walking aimlessly in the dark down a cold hall because ever since the AC in there broke a few months ago no one has fixed it and now that winter’s nearing by it gets so cold sometimes he shivers when he’s out there. But he tries not to think about it, it’s not that late yet, just a little past twelve, and he knows that there’s bound to be some kids still up, either doing homework or contemplating their lives like he was doing just twenty minutes ago. 

So, he stills his nerves, willing himself to stop shaking—when did he start shaking?—, and takes a deep breath, exhaling through his nose before opening the door and stepping outside as quickly as he can, needle, studs and phone clutched tight in his hand. 

No taking backs, he’s gonna do this.

As he’s walking, he realises he was right, there’s people still up in his hall, the light from inside their rooms spilling softly from under the doors and giving Hueningkai enough light as to not trip on his own feet. 

The cold from the autumn weather seeps into his thin clothes, making him shiver and regret not pulling on a sweater first before leaving his dorm. He can see the door to the bathrooms already, eerily creepy and waiting for him to make his next mistake in life, he groans when he realises it’s also gonna be cold in there, maybe even colder, because some kids like to leave the small window close to the ceiling open, letting the cold as hell wind come through and make them even more prone to getting pneumonia. 

Just as he’s about to push the door open, there’s noise down the opposite side of the hall, hushed voices and rapid whispering, the sound of footsteps trying to get to their dorm fast, probably without getting catched drunk by the RA.

Hueningkai snorts as he hears one of them fall, it’s too dark and too far to make out anything, but the loud oomph and the small whine he heard was enough to clue him on what happened. 

Before he can get any more distracted, he pushes open the bathroom door and steps inside, turning on the lights and squinting at them until he gets used to it. He shivers at the gust of wind that attacks him once he’s inside.  _ Fucking assholes, who the hell leaves the window open in mid-september _ . 

If he remembers correctly—from all the times Beomgyu came back drunk and stupid, slipping on something or doing something reckless, and Soobin dragging him and Hueningkai to patch him up because they couldn’t deal with hungover  _ and _ hurt Beomgyu in the same morning—there’s a first aid kit with basic stuff under one of the sinks, he has no idea  _ which _ sink, so he just crouches down and hopes for the best, scanning all of them with his eyes, until he spots a white and red box, tucked safely behind a sink right to his left, but easy to be spotted. 

He feels kinda guilty, using this stuff for his moment of dumb existential crisis, but if you were to ask him, existential crisis count as emergencies, right? Well, at least in the eyes of angsty teens, and he is one, so yeah it counts. 

As he cleans the studs and the needle, he thinks back to the times he saw his sister do this, letting him sit on the toilet seat as he watched her with curious eyes, her hands making quick motions of swiping the needle, burning it, and then swiping it again with rubbing alcohol, all while glaring at the mirror as if it was their own father scolding her again for skipping class. Hueningkai flinched where she just winced slightly, her red ear from the ice she put against it numb it giving easily to the tip of the needle, letting it slide smoothly and settle there until her fuming rage was calmed down and she could take it out slowly, only to insert a pretty earring with a little faux-diamond stud on it. Hueningkai watched her with awe, at how grown-up she looked, piercing her own ears and not even flinching, like it was the easiest thing in the world.

And then Hueningkai’s mind blanches because he realises, he has no ice. He forgot the fucking ice. He groans, punching the air in frustration, before standing in front of the mirror and contemplating his choices. 

Technically, he could make a run for the common room and get ice from the fridge, but that’s three floors down and it’s goddamn cold, he can feel the goosebumps rising in his skin the more he stands in the freezing cold bathroom, and he doesn’t want to stand there any longer than he needs. He also thinks about turning back and just going to bed, forgetting he ever decided to do this and tucking everything away— _ but _ , he already came this far, all the things he needs splayed out in the counter next to the sink, like they are mocking him for being a dumbass.—and there’s a voice in the back of his head that sounds suspiciously a lot like Beomgyu, calling him a coward and an idiot—

“Uhg, fuck it, worst case scenario I just can’t do it,” he mutters to himself, picking up the needle with slightly shaky hands. Looking in the mirror again, he sees how utterly silly he looks, with a needle in his hand, bags under his eyes and his hair a mess from not brushing it since he woke up from his nap earlier that day. It is the joys and wonders of college he supposes. Making dumb decisions while his life falls apart and sticking a needle through his ear doesn’t seem like the worst thing he could be doing right now. 

He looks back at the black studs, sitting innocently on the counter, shining under the fluorescent lights of the communal bathroom, and he feels the sting of tears in his eyes the more he stares, and there’s an ache in his chest that he knows it’s only gonna go away for tonight, appeased by whatever other dumb thing he had decided to do, letting him trick himself into thinking he’s bigger than he actually is—than he actually feels. Like everything’s fine and this is just another thing he has control over instead of one of the  _ only _ things he has control over. That maybe if he seems confident enough then the things he wants will become true, will happen eventually. Maybe if he stares long enough in the mirror he can make out the better version of himself that he’s been wishing for ever since he graduated high school and he had a front row seat to the guy he’s liked for years falling for someone that’s is so much more than he is right now, than he’ll ever be.

He hesitates, two, three seconds, before taking a deep breath and guiding the needle to his earlobe, far away enough from place he knows will hurt but not low enough to make it weird. Stiling his hand one last time, he pushes it forward and—

And the door opens.

The door opens and Pretty Dance-hyung that has Soobin so enamored and charmed is standing there, looking at him, but only for a second before he darts to one of the stalls, pushing the door open and kneeling in front of the toilet. Hueningkai hears gagging, and he scrunches up his nose in disgust.

“Hyung!—” another boy bustles through the door, holding a bottle of water in one hand and a red coat in the other. He stares at Hueningkai with big, startled eyes that shine under the artificial lights of the bathroom and his deep, dark brown turns a rich honey where the shines reflect, and all Hueningkai can think is  _ pretty _ .

They stare at each other for a while, Hueningkai feels like he’s drowning in the guy’s eyes and then there’s another gag coming from the stall where Pretty Dance-hyung is and then the guy is apologizing and tumbling into that same stall, whispering hushed words that Hueningkai can’t make out, but he assumes from the sobs intercepted by coughs that he’s comforting his hyung.

Hueningkai stands there, needle in hand, listening to the sounds of the other two boys in the stall, the pretty boy is talking louder than before, muttering softs  _ It’s okay hyung _ ’s and  _ I’m here, don’t worry _ ’s. Hueningkai rolls his eyes and bitterly wonders what does that dude have that makes all the pretty boys be so drawn to him. 

And then he instantly feels bad because the dude is clearly puking his guts out, and sobbing like he just got told someone ran over his puppy, and Hueningkai has no right to be mad at him when he barely knows anything about him at all. 

Turning back towards the mirrors, he decides to ignore the two other boys just a few feet away from him. If his self-doubt and crippling anxiety didn’t make him turn back, then neither will these two strangers—one which is puking his feelings out apparently—, so he forces himself to focus on the needle and his ear rather than the sweet, melodic voice that’s starting to hum a song Hueningkai doesn’t recognize, and wills his thoughts away from  _ Soobin would do that _ ’s. God he’s so screwed. 

If he let himself truly think right now, he’d probably back out, realise what a dumb idea this was and that it’s too late and cold for him to be out there in the bathroom at one am. Maybe he’d even ask Pretty Dance-hyung and his pretty friend if they need any help, maybe he’d find out the guy is the nicest guy that Hueningkai could ever meet and he’d see why Soobin and Beomgyu are so enthralled by him— but alas, he doesn’t, instead he just pushes forward and sticks the needle in. 

His ear isn’t numb, he can feel everything and anything, but he doesn’t scream, because that’d be stupid. Instead, he bites down on his lip, muffling the groan of pain that tumbles out of his mouth, and glares at himself in the mirror, vision blurry from the tears forming in his eyes. He quickly blinks them away.

Breathing deeply, in and out, like his mom taught him when he started to panic, he blinks a few more times before he focuses his eyes, once again coming face to face with his reflection. This time, his cheeks are flushed, and his eyes are shiny from the tears that formed in his eyes at the brief pain. Experimentally, he tugs at the needle, and hisses when it drags, causing his ear to sting. Because of course,  _ of course _ , the universe hates him that much that—the needle didn’t go through the other side. It did go in, it just never came out from the other fucking side.

While he’s trying to blink away new tears again, he distantly realises that both the sobbing and gagging have stopped, there’s only the sound of clothes rustling here and there and quiet whisper of unintelligible words. There’s a moment of complete silence, Hueningkai’s hand still raised mid-air, holding the needle that’s stuck in his ear, cheeks flushed from embarrassment and pain, and then pretty boy with the pretty eyes is coming out of the stall and looking at Hueningkai, worrying his plump bottom lip in between his teeth and Hueningkai looks away before he can stare for too long.

“Do you—uh, do you need any help?” his voice is soft when he asks that, laced with worry but also amusement as he watches Hueningkai process his question.

Hueningkai stares at the boy’s reflection in the mirror, how his eyes shine even when he’s looking at him through a foggy, dirty mirror, stares at the way the boy’s hands are covered by the sleeves of his oversized hoodie, his fingers red—probably from the cold—peeking enough for Hueningkai to notice how small his hands probably are in comparison to his own.

He considers saying no, he’s fine, he can handle it. Because this is humiliating enough, he doesn’t need the boy’s help, would rather walk around with a needle sticking out of his earlobe and call it a new fashion statement.

“Please?” He says instead, and he hates how small his voice sounds. Pretty boy blinks once, twice, before nodding and walking towards Hueningkai with a small smile, no less nervous than Hueningkai feels.

“Don’t worry,” Pretty boy says, his smile softening just a tad bit as he comes up to stand in front of Hueningkai. The bathroom lights reflect on his golden skin and his big eyes, and Hueningkai doesn’t think they do him any justice at all because the boy is downright  _ gorgeous _ even in a dimly lit college bathroom in the middle of the night, and he wonders how he’d look in the middle of the day bathed in the sun’s light, his eyes turning into honey golden pools and his skin turning into liquid gold. He feels a blush creep on his neck as he thinks about it. “I’ve done this before, I promise I know what I’m doing.”

“You have?” Hueningkai asks, cocking his head to the side in question, but Pretty boy grabs his cheeks and guides his head straight again, and then turns it slightly to the left so he can look at the mess Hueningkai made. 

He blushes even harder when he realises Pretty boy still hasn’t let go of his face as he hums a response, eyes focused on the needle.

“Yeah, that guy over there—” he motions to the stall where Pretty Dance-hyung is kneeled over the toilet bowl, no longer puking but just kneeling, maybe waiting for Pretty boy “I did all of his piercings when we were in high school, he practically forced me to learn how to do it.” he snorts, lightly touching needle and pulling back with a soft  _ sorry _ when Hueningkai flinches. Hueningkai smiles apologetically, waving his hand like it’s nothing—in a scale of all the pains he’s ever felt in his life, this doesn’t even make it onto the scale.

“You didn’t use ice,” Pretty boy notes.

“Uhh, yeah, I kinda forgot...” Pretty boy seems amused at that, his eyebrows raising and his eyes glinting in the light. 

Hueningkai loves his eyes.

Pretty boy is quiet for a moment, inspecting Hueningkai’s ear again, tugging at the needle twice more before he purses his lips. And Hueningkai looks away, focusing on the wall instead of the way Pretty boy’s lips look so red and soft, jutting out in just the perfect way for a peck with the way he’s pouting like that. 

“I’m Taehyun, by the way,” Pretty boy says after a while, and Hueningkai looks down at him— _ down _ because Pretty boy—Taehyun— is so much smaller than him, his head coming up just at his shoulder length, even Beomgyu is taller than him, and something squeezes in Hueningkai’s chest— Taehyun is looking at him with his impossibly big eyes, smiling in a way that makes Hueningkai want to bury his hands in his hair and maybe kiss him senseless and also maybe hold his hand. He’s also close, closer than Hueningkai anticipated, and he can see the little flecks of gold in the Taehyun’s irises, can see his long eyelashes fanning across his cheeks as he peers up through them so prettily at him.

“HueningKai,” he manages to croak out, flushing at the way his voice cracks, and he clears his throat, lowering his eyes to the ground instead of focusing on the small, knowing smile on Taehyun’s face.

“HueningKai,” Taehyun repeats, and he swears his heart just leaped out of his chest and did a little victory dance at the way his name sounds coming from Taehyun’s mouth, soft and delicate, like it was always meant to be said by him. “Cute” is all he says after that, and Hueningkai doesn’t get time to wonder if he meant  _ him _ or his name because the next second Taehyun is tugging the needle out and Hueningkai is hissing a half-assed curse at him, and Taehyun’s soft tinkling laughter fills the otherwise silent bathroom, echoing in the walls, shooting right into Hueningkai’s heart, and making him melt a little. 

“Stay still” Taehyun warns him, and Hueningkai has half a mind to do it, and the moment he feels the press of the needle against his earlobe again his hand is shooting out to hold onto Taehyun’s arm—the one that’s not holding the needle, thank god—and he hisses again, screwing his eyes shut and feeling a little bit sick when he finally hears the skin give in and feels the needle passing through the other side. 

“Done.” Taehyun says, voice gone soft again, and when Hueningkai opens his eyes and looks down Taehyun has crinkles around his eyes, a slight blush to his cheeks and Hueningkai’s hand is still holding firmly onto his arm. “Just pass me the stud”

Luckily, he reacts quicker than the last times, not less entranced by Taehyun’s eyes but with a much more pressing need of being done with this whole ordeal. So he reaches for one of the studs sitting on the counter and grabs it, handing it to Taehyun with a slightly shaky hand. Taehyun looks at him and then at the hand holding his arm, and Hueningkai chuckles nervously, letting go of him so Taehyun can grab the stud from his hand.

The needle is gone as quickly as it entered, and in a few seconds Taehyun has the stud passing through the hole instead and then he’s closing it off on the back, rotating it for another second and then letting go, stepping back and putting distance between them. Hueningkai shivers the moment he’s away, feeling the cold wind from the window again now that Taehyun isn’t close to enough for his body warmth to get to Hueningkai, and he isn’t close enough for Hueningkai to get lost in the details of his pretty face.

He clears his throat, trying to cut the silence that stretched over them as Taehyun stepped away, “Thank—” he starts, but then there’s a whine coming from one of the stalls, followed by a small sob, and Hueningkai remembers that they aren’t alone, that Pretty  _ Insufferable _ Dance-hyung is with them, and he resists the urge to roll his eyes and scoff at the guy, because that’d be mean, and Hueningkai’s not mean and the guy clearly needs help. 

And that’s why Taehyun’s eyes widen and he’s hurrying over to his hyung, kneeling next to him like he did when he first entered. This time, Hueningkai walks towards the stall, uncertain, and he stays away from the door in case they want to get up and leave—which they probably want because the bathroom is cold, and kind of dirty and Dance-hyung seems to be really uncomfortable right now, almost sprawled entirely on the floor and clinging to Taehyun’s hoodie for support—and watches as Taehyun lifts the bottle of water to his hyung’s lip, gently coaxing him to swallow, all while he rubs his hyung’s back softly.

“It’s okay, hyung, I’m here,” he says in that soft, soft voice that makes Hueningkai wish he could sing him to sleep every night. “I’m not going anywhere”

“Tyun—” Pretty Dance-hyung chokes out after he downed half of the bottle, a sob bubbling up his throat again “I wanna—”

Taehyun just shushes him, pushing the bottle to his lips again and using his other hand to drape the red coat, the one that he brought with him when he first entered, over his hyung’s shoulders, accommodating it as well as he can with just one hand while still trying to soothe the older boy.

Hueningkai is mesmerized. 

Which in hindsight is kinda weird, because there’s a dude sobbing and gagging every two seconds right next to him but Taehyun looks so beautiful with his big eyes full of  _ something _ and his soft lips quirking up in a tiny smile when he notices Hueningkai standing there. And he feels like a creep— and an asshole, because he should’ve totally asked them if they needed any help, but all he did was stand there and ogle at Taehyun’s pretty face.

“Do you need any help?” he asks, and tries not to chuckle when he thinks about Taehyun asking him the same question not even fifteen minutes ago. 

Taehyun  _ does _ chuckle, and he looks at Hueningkai again, eyes crinkled and smile back in place. Hueningkai wants to see him like that more often. 

He just wants to see Taehyun more often, he thinks.

“No, it’s okay, I’ll just—” he makes an oomph sound when Pretty Dance-hyung throws himself into Taehyun’s arms, snuggling in his chest as another sob wracks his body “I’ll just take Yeonjun-hyung to his dorm now, he really needs to sleep.” Yeonjun swats uselessly at Taehyun’s chest, muttering a muffled  _ I do not _ . 

Hueningkai feels kind of envious, he wishes he could be in Taehyun’s arms too, and then he catches himself thinking that and he flushes bright red, coughing into his hand as if it’ll make him look less like a fresh ripe tomato. 

He does end up helping steady Yeonjun up, he helps Taehyun put Yeonjun’s arms around his shoulders and make sure he doesn’t face plant the instant Taehyun starts walking, and then they are off to the door and out of the bathroom.

And Hueningkai stands there under the fluorescent lights of his cold college bathroom, his ear throbbing from his newly made piercing and his heart beating faster than it ever did. 

He sighs, deciding that this has been enough for tonight and he needs to sleep for another ten years, so he starts to put everything back in place, returning the rubbing alcohol and the cotton to the first aid kit before shoving the remaining black stud into the pockets of his sweatpants. He considers shoving the needle too but then he realises that stupid as hell idea and decides to just keep it between his fingers as he walks back. 

He sighs for what feels like the nth time, but then he hears whispers and murmured words before Taehyun is coming through the door again, shoving something into his hand and hurrying off to Yeonjun again. Hueningkai blinks at the door, and then at his hand, and he realises Taehyun shoved a paper into his hand.

**_text me, or call me? :)_ **

**_04xxx-xxx-xxx_ **

**_taehyun_ **

He spends the rest of the walk towards his dorm room with a giddy, stupid smile on his face, phone and needle in hand as he completely ignores the hundred texts Beomgyu sent him and ignoring for now he’s gonna have to tell Jeongin he basically stole a pair of his earrings.

It’s okay, he’s got Taehyun’s number and he can’t wait to see him again.

**Author's Note:**

> i have some other yeonbin fics on the works, ive been working on them for months now but i just can't seem to finish them. i can't believe a silly little tyunning fic inspired by my misfortune did it first before yeonbin. anyways expect more dumb fics from me because i just can't seem to stop writing them! maybe if i finished them and posted them itd be better but alas!!


End file.
